Numerous swabs, applicators, dispensers and kits for dispensing and applying various materials, including adhesive materials, are known. However, these known arrangements possess various shortcomings that make them undesirable in many applications.
Monomer and polymer adhesives are used in both industrial (including household) and medical applications. Included among these adhesives are the 1,1-disubstituted ethylene monomers and polymers, such as the X-cyanoacrylates. Since the discovery of the adhesive properties of such monomers and polymers, they have found wide use due to the speed with which they cure, the strength of the resulting bond formed, and their relative ease of use. These characteristics have made the .alpha.-cyanoacrylate adhesives the primary choice for numerous applications such as bonding plastics, rubbers, glass, metals, wood, and, more recently, biological tissues.
Medical applications of 1,1-disubstituted ethylene monomer adhesive compositions include use as an alternative or an adjunct to surgical sutures and staples in wound closure as well as for covering and protecting tissue wounds such as lacerations, abrasions, burns, stomatitis, sores, and other open surface wounds. When such an adhesive is applied, it is usually applied in its monomeric form, and the resultant polymerization gives rise to the desired adhesive bond.
Applicators for Dispensing a Polymerizable and/or Cross-Linkable Material, such as a 1,1-disubstituted Ethylene Formulation.
In general, many different 1,1-disubstituted ethylene formulations are known for various applications, for example, cyanoacrylate formulations used as fast-acting surgical adhesives, sealants, bioactive agent release matrixes and implants utilized in medical, surgical and other in vivo applications.
However, due to the need to apply the adhesive in its monomeric form, and due to the rapid polymerization rate of the monomers, it has been very difficult to design effective and commercially viable applicators and/or dispensers. Such applicators and/or dispensers must counterbalance the competing requirements that the monomer not prematurely polymerize, that the monomer be easily applied, that the monomer polymerize at a desired rate upon application, and that the sanitary and/or sterile properties of the monomer and applicator—whether real or perceived—be maintained. This latter requirement, that the actual or perceived sanitary and sterile condition of the monomer and applicator be maintained, is particularly important in medical applications, where the user and/or the patient desires a clean product so as not to introduce further bacteria or foreign matter into a wound site.
While such adhesives have very demanding properties (e.g., rapid polymerization) that impede desired dispensing, other liquids to varying degrees have similar limitations that would benefit from precise placement without clogging and leaking, especially for a device capable of multiple uses. Consequently, a significant need exists for an improved surgical fluid dispenser.